random tagging

I've been tagged by Em over at doing it all again to tell you 8 random things about me...

hmmmmm, what would be both interesting and not overly incriminating?

1. I rode a motorbike every day for 9 years. I was the first person in the family to have one (although two others followed me), and it was much against my mothers wishes. It took me a whole year of working every Saturday and every Sunday to save up the money to buy it. Despite commuting round London, travelling across the country, attending various bike shows and belongi g to a bike club for all those years, I never broke any bones or even damaged myself or my bike beyond superficial surface marks. I am the only person I know who can claim this.
2. I am incredably unco-ordinated. As a child my family learned never to even let me go into shops with breakables as it was guaranteed that I would smash them! I still have to be extremely careful in shops, and regulrly have "accidents". I stopped attending PE at age 12. The rest of my family are all quite the opposite - all three of my sisters were high class competitive athletes in artistic sports - one became the youngest qualified coach in the country and the other two both represented their country at various competitions. Despite this, i am the one who ended up working in the sports industry!
3. I was severely bullied as a child. i distinctly remember literally fleeing in fear if my life on a number of occasions and ended up in hospital with an injury that still affects me today. It never occured to me to complain to a teacher about any of this. I tried all of the remedies suggested in the anti-bullying literature at various times. None of them worked. I have no idea what the solution is, other than get a bigger gang of your own (which is what i finally did).
4. By the time I was a teenager, i knew I didn't want children. Or a husband. Or to be tied down to one place. I love single life, travelling and being my own boss and as selfish as I want. I have absolutely no idea how it is that i am married, with a mortgage, job and three kids. I still think I would have been perfectly happy and quite likely happier without the children, although I love them to pieces and would do absolutely anything for them.
5. I have travelled accross Europe, the Middle East, and to Africa (well, Egypt - it's offically Africa), Russia (the soviet union then), the USA and Mexico. it is nowhere near enough and I would love to go everywhere else. And back to those places again. And off world too if possible:-) Travelling is imo undoubtedly one of the best things a person can do - if they actually travel to different cultures, visit real places, talk to real people and learn about real things! I still think the very best way to travel is by thumb. I hitch-hiked everywhere, and met the most amazing people, saw the most fantastic places and discovered that despite media representations, the VAST majority of humanity are jolly decent people! Whenever I feel depressed about our species, a quick hitch hike, or even just a walk and chat to some strangers will remind me that on the whole, people are nice:-)
6. I honestly do not believe there is anything supernatural. No soul, no God, no ghosts, no demons or angels, fairies, elves, poltergeists, gaia, mother nature, after-life, pre-life, reincarnation or anything else spiritual, other or more. This seems to really upset an awful lot of people, even quite secular ones. Many of them either don't believe me, or think that i must be lying otherwise i would be a psychotic killer. I am not sure why poeple think we need something other than common sense to know that psychotic killing is not a good thing to do! Lots of them assume I do really believe in "something" but just haven't identified it with a name. Most ask me if I am really sure, and look quite shocked when I say yes. But the ones that really make me laugh are then ones that tell me I will go to hell for not believing in hell....... Like that is going to worry me?
7. I am a disgusting slob. I will do pretty much anything rather than do housework. Before Aggie came along and flaked everywhere, i was quite content with a once a month vacuum, and annual dusting. I am happy to live ina room that is full of "stuff" just lurking in corners. Much as I like the concept of a place for everthing and everything in it's place, i have not yet worked out how to achieve even a quarter of the first half of this! However, my slenliness mostly stays with mess, not dirt. I try to keep the place clean by using preventative tactics - no food upstairs, all messy jobs to be done in the garden, luandry and people washed often with good soap:-) In my defence, i am not a stuff person. I would happily live in a two bed cottage, with just the barest minimum of stuff. I spend much of my time moaning about how much stuff we have and that we should get rid of it. Sadly Aggie is a hoarder. He loves his stuff and can never have too much. Yet another battle I have lost in this relationship as we have a big house and a big garden, both absolutely brimming with stuff I don't want!
8. Everyone thinks I am a horrible partner. In fact, after a few years, even my sister asked Aggie why on earth he stays with me. However, despite the fact that i am the one who gives all the orders, seems to win every argument and choses what to do, when and how to do it and where it should be done..... I wanted to stay single, and we're married. I wanted to stay unchained to a specific place, and we've got a mortgage. I wanted to be DINK's (Dual income, no kids), and our income has halved since the kids turned up. I wanted a small house with no garden, and we have a big house and large garden one. In fact, on all the big issues, Aggie seems to be living his dream, and I have no idea how that happened:-)

Well, hopefully that's 8 fairly random and interesting things that i haven't specifically covered before. As always, i won't tag anyone, but if you want to have a go, leave me a comment and I'll link to you here.